The present invention relates generally to trays for shipping and displaying somewhat fragile articles such as fruit. More particularly, the invention relates to an improved tray construction which is capable of protecting such fragile articles from damaging forces which may be encountered during shipping, which permits nesting with identical trays and stacking with the same or similar trays, and which provides open access for loading, unloading and viewing the articles.
The bulk packaging of delicate or frangible foodstuff articles such as fruit, vegetables, eggs and the like has proven highly undesirable for a number of reasons. No matter what type of transportation is employed for shipping purposes, substantial vibration and other forces are necessarily administered to the articles during transit as well as during loading or unloading operations. The bulk packaging of quantities of the articles in contact with each other in a container increases these potentially damaging forces because of the mass of the articles acting on any individual article. The resulting bruises, lacerations or other deleterious effects are well known to persons skilled in the art and otherwise. In addition, such damage or that originated from other sources may produce a decay environment which is susceptible of transmission to other contacting but previously uninfected articles.
As a result of the above exemplary disadvantages attendant the bulk packaging of such foodstuff articles, there have been numerous suggested configurations for trays which have as their functional purpose the isolation of the individual articles so as to eliminate the disadvantages attendant the contacting deployment. In general, the proposed configurations have tended to address themselves to one of the numerous problems associated with the handling and display requirements of a tray configuration. In some instances provision has been made for the isolation of each individual article in a tray which requires the use of a layer of cardboard or other separating device to provide support between the stacked trays. Such a configuration has the decided disadvantage of requiring substantial quantities of separating devices which are relatively easily misplaced or damaged such that reuse is normally not feasible.
In other instances trays have been proposed which are of a two-part nature such that a lid or closure must be provided with open windows or other translucent material such as to accomplish the requisite display function. Such trays are generally more difficult to handle, require a longer time to load and unload, and to eliminate the possibility of separation of the two parts must be provided with some type of hinge arrangement which is subject to failure, thereby reducing the possibility of succesfully recycling devices any substantial number of times.
A great number of proposed prior art trays have structural characteristics such that the stacking of the trays in layers for shipping and/or display purposes places the bearing or supporting points of adjacent trays in substantial alignment with the article to be protected such that upon subjection to the forces described above, the trays can deform to a sufficient extent such that damage to the articles is nevertheless possible. In other instances the bearing or supporting points are of such limited size as to require the use for stacking of only exactly identical trays.
To applicant's knowledge, there is no existing tray configuration which solves the full range of problems discussed hereinabove to which the present invention is directed.